Good music
For a great selection of rootsy, lyrical songs inspired by Fife, check out the excellent debut album released today by The Johnstown Flood, aka Dunfermline singer songwriter Stuart Bell. Chasing September’s Tail combines country, folk, blues and Americana and even a touch of ragtime on Brandy Alexander (listen below), a stand out track which sets Stuart’s deeply romantic lyric about a night out with his wife against a lovely, woozy tune
So exciting to hear a young local musician producing something that’s properly fresh and original. Just listen to the superb, shimmering funk of this virtuoso solo project by Dunfermline’s own Jamie Cooling. Shades of Lewis Taylor combine with Jamie’s own heartfelt idiosyncrasies to create a perfect summer vibe. Classically trained Jamie is off travelling the world with his guitar at the moment, but this is what he has to say
Today is the birthday of the great Ella Fitzgerald who managed to progress from an orphanage, by way of being a teenage lookout at a brothel and a Mafia numbers runner to being the undisputed First lady of American song. Ira Gershwin said, ‘we never knew how good our songs were until Ella Fitzgerald sang them.’
Tae Sup wi a Fifer is a superb series of shows brought to the Adam Smith Theatre by acclaimed Fife musician James Yorkston. On 9 April the show, in an amazingly good line up, features the magnificent Linton Kwesi Johnson, still going strong at 63, and recent winner of the Scottish Album of the Year Award, Kathryn Joseph. Tickets cost £15 and are available here.
The weather outside this morning seems to call for this sublime piece by Estonian composer Arvo Part, played here by Nicola Benedetti who describes it as ‘simplicity at its most genuine and most moving.’ The image above, also titled Speigel im Spiegel, is by German artist Christine Gehrke.
by Donald Makin Dunfermline is alive with music this weekend with a few gigs to perk up the damp summer nights of July. On Friday 24 July, at 9pm, Stella Reilly headlines a free acoustic gig at the Old Inn in the Maygate. With support from the great Deni Smith, whose new single Breakdown is out now, and Scott Gilbert, who is back with top new tune Neon Lights, this
Minstrel in the Gallery was the eighth LP by Jethro Tull and the last to feature the longtime line up of Dunfermline-born Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, John Evans, Barrie Barlow and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond. To celebrate the classic rock album’s 40th anniversary it has now been remastered and expanded. The new version features b-sides, live recordings, studio outtakes, session material and footage of the band performing in Paris in 1975. The presentation case
This very pretty original song, Ladylike Ways, was written for the play Thieves of Dunfermline which was performed over five nights in December 2014 in Abbot House, Dunfermline. Thieves told stories of Dunfermline’s long history and this was the play’s tribute to the women who worked as miners in Fife. The track, which features well known Fife musician Sandie Forbes on vocals and violin with Jonathan Cairney on guitar, was
I really didn’t know that what was missing from my life was a brand new disco album from Jimmy Somerville. How wrong I was.
Fancy a couple of cheery new tunes for your Monday morning? Here is The Party Line from Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, the 9th studio album by Belle and Sebastian. The band are touring in May and play Newcastle City Hall on the 16th and The Hydro in Glasgow on the 22nd. The Waterboys too are back in action. Listen below to November Tale from Modern Blues which is out next week.
